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Topic: A beautiful end (Read 848 times)

This was posted on a forum I am active in, I really wanted to share it here. It is noce to see that some people can have a love like that.

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love is a very strong emotion-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i just read this in my local paper it is a very sweet, but, sad story.. get the kleenex ready.

Violet and Orville Peacock, together to the endAfter 65 years of marriage and devotion to each other, the husband and wifedied a day apart.By Darlene Prois, Star Tribune

Last update: March 13, 2007 - 9:39 PM

Violet and Orville Peacock

Orville Peacock called the shots during his 65-year marriage to Violet. Overthe years, relatives had grown accustomed to hearing Orville's gruffpronouncements when he tired of the family gatherings that Violet so loved."Vi," he'd shout on his way out the door. "The bus is leaving. Are youcoming or not?"

Vi would grumble, but she would follow.

On Thursday, Orville died at 93. Violet died the next day.

"It's a love story, if not really a fairy tale," said their son John ofMaple Grove. "But the ending was absolutely super. They cared deeply abouteach other."

The couple lived together in their Brooklyn Center apartment until December,when 89-year old Violet was hospitalized with circulatory problems.

"That was the downfall of my father," John said. "He felt lost without her."

Theirs had been a marriage typical of the era. Orville earned the living,working as a machinist and grinder at Ford Motor Co. When the babies came,Violet gave up her job as a seamstress to make a home for Orville and theirsons John, Tom and Terry.

"She was the one who took care of us," said Tom. "She was the buffer betweenus and dad."

They were private people, especially Orville. Violet loved to be with herfamily, savoring weekly shopping excursions with her nieces. She would haveliked to play cards with her neighbors, too, but Orville discouraged that.He feared she would get tired if she stayed up too late.

"He protected her almost to a fault," said John.

But as Violet's health became more fragile, Orville became her caretaker,cooking meals and keeping track of her medicines.

A few weeks after Violet's hospitalization, Orville also fell ill. Hispneumonia failed to improve, and his family put him in hospice care at NorthMemorial Medical Center. Within hours, Violet's condition worsened, too, andshe was put in a room near her husband's.

Even with medication, Orville was agitated and angry, insisting he could notdie before his beloved Vi. The couple's grandniece, Melissa Melichar, anursing assistant who worked on another floor at North Memorial, decided tohelp.

Melichar knew how devoted Orville and Violet were to each other. For years,she'd done home care for the couple. After finishing her shift, she went totheir rooms, determined to bring them together one last time.

At 12:10 a.m. Thursday, Melichar rolled the couple's beds together,arranging the two on their sides, face to face. She put their handstogether.

"As soon as they touched, they both settled down," said Melichar. "I toldhim to open his eyes and look at her."

Orville did. Seeing Vi, he smiled and squeezed her arm. He died 35 minuteslater.

"It was the most peaceful, happy death I've seen," Melichar said.

That evening, Melichar whispered in Violet's ear. Orville has gone, she toldher. Are you going?

She died an hour later.

The two are survived by sons John of Maple Grove, Tom of Coon Rapids andTerry of Seattle; seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Amemorial gathering will be held Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. at the CremationSociety of Minnesota, 7835 Brooklyn Blvd., Brooklyn Park.